TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2018 W W W. F I N A N C I A L E X P R E S S . C O M After having bagged the creative mandate of the sports tech start-up,the agency will partner it for all sports tieups.The account was won without any pitch.Meanwhile, Wavemaker India has bagged the media mandate for Dream11. Management rejig at KWAN Its co-founders Indranil Das Blah and Vijay Subramaniam have been elevated as the company’s co-chief executive officers. Bishwajeet Samal set to join Volkswagen India His appointment as head of marketing will be effective from June 1, 2018. He is currently responsible for regional marketing — international communications at Volkswagen AG, Germany. He will report to Steffen Knapp, director,Volkswagen Passenger Cars India. Sandeep Goyal buys 10% equity in Sync Media The deal has been closed at a premoneyvaluation of $3 million.The ad tech platform plans to take its offering to Southeast Asia during the later part of 2018 after its all India rollout.His daughter,Carol, will join the Board of Sync Media. VIP elevates Sudip Ghose to CEO In his earlier role at VIP Industries,he served as vice president — sales and marketing.He has been with the company since April,2013. Hotstar ropes in Sid Taparia The former Gelato India country managerwill build the international business of Star India’s video on demand platform as its head — international business.Hotstar’s premium service is available in the US and Canada. Soham Bhagnari joins FoxyMoron He joins as head of the agency’s Mumbai office. Prior to this,he was with iProspect as AVP. Dentsu launches DAN Prism The new tool from the data sciences division of Dentsu Aegis Network is a video planning and insights tool that provides a single audience view across television and digital.The tool will be used for all Dentsu Aegis Network India clients. FA C E B O O K : F E B R A N D WA G O N FACE OFF P3 Ajay Kakar, Ashish Bhasin and Shrenik Gandhi on Facebook’s big privacy breach NAVEEN JHUNJHUNWALA, BBC GLOBAL NEWS — INDIA, MUSES ON HOW READY WE ARE FOR DELIVERING NEWS OVER DIGITAL Leo Burnett Orchard bags Dream11 @ F E B R A N D WA G O N DEBATE P4 BLOGGER’S PARK P2 IN THE NEWS T W I T T E R : Janne Einola on H&M India’s plans to keep opening stores across the length and breadth of the country, and more ‘TIER II HAS GREAT GROWTH POTENTIAL’ Building transparency in digital ad buying Issues like digital ad fraud or viewability miscalculations can be handled with closer ties to analytics, performance monitoring and third party verification DISAPPEARING AD DOLLARS ■ Advertisers will lose an estimated $19 billion to fraudulent activities in 2018 globally, equivalent to $51 million per day ■ Lotame announced in February it had removed 10% of its over four billion profiles after identifying them as fraudulent accounts ANKITA.RAI @expressindia.com ■ Accuracy of data from the DSP and DMP side is a key issue with programmatic ad buying A S COMPANIES SPEND more advertising dollars online, the digital marketplace has become increasingly less transparent. The platform is facing various grave issues like a non-transparent media supply chain, bot traffic, ad fraud, viewability and the most recent,the Facebook data breach.Data,which was supposed to be the Holy Grail in digital advertising,has become the most abused word in the adtech space. Is the lure of unprecedented targeting and personalisation among marketers, creating a complex advertising marketplace? According to Juniper Research, advertisers will lose an estimated $19 billion to fraudulent activities in 2018 globally, equivalent to $51 million per day. This figure, representing advertising on online and mobile devices, will continue to rise,reaching $44 billion by 2022. On top of it, big global platforms Facebook and Google that operate as walled gardens — accounting for more than 60% of digital ad spend (industry estimates) — are not open to independent measurement of performance. “So while, publishers suffer from insufficient revenues due to lack of viable means of monetising their data, advertisers get poor RoIs due to lack of accurate user behaviour data for targeting,” says Sumit Gupta, chief operation officer,Zohem,a blockchain start-up. ■ Advertisers get poor RoIs due to lack of accurate user behaviour data for targeting ■ Walled gardens — accounting for more than 60% of digital ad spend — should be more open to independent measurement of performance Shifts in media ad buying For digital media,ad buying is changing quite rapidly.“From the importance of pricing to the importance of quality — brand safety, ad fraud and viewability are taking the front seat, along with audience buying over placement buying,” says Vinod Thadani, chief digital officer, Mindshare. Marketersareincreasinglyconcerned and want to know where their ad dollars are being spent. “We ask platforms to deliver60-70%viewabilityto startwith. If they are unable to deliver that, we do notgetthemonboard,”saysGopaKumar, executive vice president,Isobar India. For FMCG major Nestlé, key concern areas fordigital advertising are accountability,transparencyandattribution.“We attach a lot of importance toviewability. We partner with top technology service providers such as MOAT to ensure that each rupee spent is tracked forviewability,” says Rashi Goel, vice president, consumer communications and ecommerce, Nestlé India. The company alsohasglobaltie-upswithagenciessuch as Double Verify and Integral Ad Science to ensure itworks onlywith crediblevendors and partners. “We have a very transparent working relationship with all our agencies, with clear guidelines, approval and audit processes in line,”adds Goel. Then there’s health insurance company Max Bupa, which has invested deeply in building a brand through digital.Today 40% of its marketing spend is on the digital medium. “We have tied up with Vizury to use AI for personalisation and creating consumer personas, and target consumers accordingly. It gives deep insights about consumer preferences,” says Anika Agarwal, SVP and head — marketing,digital and direct sales,Max Bupa Health Insurance. “We have reduced the customer acquisition cost by 50% using programmatic and creating consumer personas.” Expertsinsistthatthedigitalmedium still works best since the most popular advertising medium — TV — ends up bombarding people with a brand’s message. Digital, on the other hand, gives a more filtered approach. But programmatic has its share of concerns owing to its murky media supply chain. ■ Continued on Page 2 IN PERSPECTIVE SANDEEP KHEWLE Eliminating ambiguity on digital BUYING DIGITAL ADVERTISING is more complex and features many more links in the transactional chain than the (traditional) model it is rapidly replacing.Today,there are often dozens of links in the chain, including ad servers, trading desks, demand- and supplyside platforms, data management and ad verification platforms, ad exchanges, and ad networks. Despite this complexity, many advertisers now understand digital ad buying. Our experience shows that companies that are making it work are those who work closely with their partners to get transparency across the transactional chain. To ensure that these critical partnerships really deliver, we recommend advertisers follow a seven-point action plan: 1 The most important place to start is with the contract framework with your media agency. Although an annual reviewoftheentirecontractmay be too resource-intensive, make sure you often review the sections and clauses that cover digital activity. Ensure that your contract reflects howthe market currently operates. 2 Take time to understand risksassociatedwithtrades that are not transparent.If it is appropriate for your brand, exclude media buys from your contract that limit transparency. ■ Continued on Page 2 REVIEW CORNER Of ‘aLL’ shapes and sizes After cultivating its consumer base largely offline, aLL has rolled out a campaign to gather attention towards its online presence. Does it work? SHINMIN.BALI @expressindia.com The Ad The ad film,What’s your Plus Point, shares some examples of how being of a plus size can be an advantage in various life situations.For somebody,their body size can be used to intimidate people (when the reason to do so is in defense of someone); for another,their size is not at all a hindrance to enjoying say,dancing, and probablydoing it a whole lot better than regular folks.Aplus size figure also carries an illusion that you mayhail from an extremelywell-to-do family and have people treat you as such.The onlyminus point of the figure so far has been fashion but not anymore,thanks to aLL,says the commercial. Target Audience Anywoman with a waist size of 34 inches upwards and man with a waist size of 40 inches upwards is an aLL customer —18 to 45 year-olds in tier I and II cities. Business Objective The brand is looking to change general perceptions about plus size fashion,build overall brand awareness at a national level and build awareness of itswebsite. The Appeal ✓ Functional ✓ Emotional ✗ Sensorial aLL’s current and potential consumer AGENCY: Marching Ants BRAND: aLL — The Plus Size Store CAMPAIGN: What’s your Plus Point PRODUCTION HOUSE: Film Republic India segment will have some communication material to relate to on TV— finally.Having been present in the market for quite some time,the brand is now talking about bringing convenience to consumers via online shopping. Competitive Edge Not manybrands prefer to highlight the size or fit specifications of their clothing lines in their advertising,beyond a point.aLLis one of the few brands whose products cater to the much underserved segment of plus sized people and is now calling attention of its customers to shop online. Tone of Voice Upbeat Verdict aLL has rolled out its first TV campaign titled What’s your Plus Point.The TVC, on the messaging front,depicts how a few extra curves can be an added benefit to one’s personality.The campaign in question is meant to encourage consumers to try the brand’s online shopping experience. When it comes to product categories that directlycater to people’s physical appearances,the easiest way to capture attention probably could be to highlight bodilyflaws,attack the target audience’s confidence and then offeryour product as the best solution out there which will bring nothing less than a package of renewed confidence and glory to the user — something that the beauty industry is highlyadept at.But it is not the’90s anymore; and what’s now fashionablyknown as‘bodyshaming’, will not take your brand anywhere (or far enough in a waythat can be sustainable). Brands in different parts of the world are trying to find the balance between pushing the envelope and not being politically incorrect or generally insensitive (for example,Gap,Nivea, Pepsi’s ad blunders) as they talk to an increasingly aware audience.aLL’s campaign understands this.And there’s always brownie points to be gained by speaking positively to a previously marginalised consumer segment. But on the execution front,aLL’s ad leaves us wanting a bit more.We can’t pinpoint exactlywhat it is but something about the pace of the ad and the delivery of lines is a little too literal and could have been done better.But these remain cosmetic points that can be easily ironed out in the next installment or campaign.Overall,the positive tone and messaging should work well for the brand. Rating: 6.5/10 @shinminbali

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